Monthly Archives: March, 2015

There are many different types of cultures existing in Africa. Many languages, communities and everything leads to a unique blend of music in Africa. Every community living here has their own cultural music, their own traditions and other characteristics. Zulu music is a part of Africa’s multilingual culture. There are some unique characteristics about every music form in Africa.
For instance use of repetition is the most common feature. Polyphony is also very common in African music. Polyphone simply means using an amalgam of various music parts being played simultaneously. Zulu’s history is well known by everyone. Of Culture, dance, tradition and colorful ritual all were very important for Zulus. They use original and incredible, musical instruments. Their traditional dance and music that are very alluring. They have used their music as a cry for freedom. African music forms are rich of different modes of expression. Drums are very popular among Zulus. They use a drum in a special method. each drummer beats the drum in such a manner that his sound is distinguished from the other drummers. Iron bells are given lots of importance by the Zulus.
Bells are repeatedly used so that to indicate the drummers to play the correct sound in correct time. Akadinda is the king of xylophones, two African musicians play it simultaneously. The first group goes on playing the same pattern while the second group plays only to fill in the missing sounds. Zulu musicians also play flute, xylophones and trumpets. Each musician plays a single note in rotation with other tunes with other players. As a result it is like a polyphonic music. Musical instruments of Zulus are slowly becoming obsolete. Reed flutes on the contrary still prove to be very popular among masses. But other instruments like Venda mbila is out dates now and not in use anywhere. Due to the development of modern pop and rock music the old traditional musical forms are slowly becoming extinct everywhere.